What Things May Come
by Whispy-bunny
Summary: A story about 'what things may come' for two rabbits, Zenthlay and Balm. **Chapter 10 - Hugging at Heartstrings
1. Default Chapter

What Things May Come  
  
Chapter 1:  
  
The Eye of the Storm  
  
A howling wind whistled harshly through the trees, rustling the delicate golden-brown leaves high in the trees. A few leaves detached themselves from the branches and were whisked about helplessly in the air in the vacuum that was the wind. The leaves crinkled in the wind, and suddenly all went still as the wind died. The leaves plummeted to the ground and a downpour of rain soaked the parched grass. Young flowers that had just broken through the earth were pounded relentlessly into the ground as the rain steadily grew heavier. The clouds appeared to open up as a horrendous lighting bolt erupted and hit a nearby tree, sending it bursting into flames.   
  
  
  
"Balm! What are you doing? Trying to get yourself killed?" a young doe yelled from the burrows, as the tree began to crack and branches fell to the ground. The buck had been taking on sentry duty, and was intent on doing his job well, except for the fact that he didn't have any common sense.   
  
  
  
Balm looked at the doe and then to the burning tree and scuttled down into the run beside the brown doe. "So Zenthlay, what's new?" he asked her, with a stupid grin on his face.   
  
  
  
"Oh you know, same old, same old," the doe replied and motioned to the rain outside. "So what was with that, you trying to tempt the Black rabbit?"  
  
  
  
"No, no, no, lets not be hasty now," Balm replied, "I was just doing my job…:  
  
  
  
"Do you see any other sentries out there, huh?" Zenthlay asked, obviously upset that her friend had no common sense himself. "You know, I won't always be here to look out for you, brother, and when I'm gone, what will you do?"  
  
  
  
"Errr…." Balm looked around nervously. "Where are you going?"  
  
  
  
"Nowhere now, I'm just saying if something was to happen to me…" Zenthlay grumbled.  
  
  
  
"What? I mean…it isn't is it?" Balm asked, staring intently at his sister. She wouldn't just leave him, would she?  
  
  
  
"No, oh for Frith's sake!" she groaned. "Just-just never mind," Zenthlay chuckled and ruffled her brother's fur. She didn't want him to injure his brain too much by straining it. "Just try to think for yourself next time. If it's raining hombil and lendri, you don't stay out there, especially after thunder almost hits the warren. It only makes sense, you understand?"   
  
  
  
"Yeah I guess, sorry sis," Balm replied bashfully, and shuddered as a gale of wind found its way down the run. The wind speed was really picking up out silf, and the clouds were turning a faint greenish color as they gathered in heaping dark entities. But the siblings were safe in the warren, as they were more or less sheltered from the wind and the rain.   
  
  
  
"Listen to that," Zenthlay whispered to Balm as the wind died down. "Come on, lets go check it out," she proclaimed to her brother and headed out silf. It was a strange sight indeed. Just where minutes ago, it had been extremely stormy and cloudy out, the sky had now parted and was pure blue. There was almost an eerie sort of silence, as there was no wind to even rustle their fur. "Balm, I don't like this, it gives me the creeps," Zenthlay proclaimed.   
  
  
  
Balm batted his sister's ears playfully. "What'cha talkin' about? It's beautiful out here!" he cried and leapt into the air, kicking his hind legs behind him. "You're too paranoid Zenthlay, the storms passed, come on, chase me!" he yelled and bolted off into the trees that were on the border of the warren.  
  
  
  
"No Balm don't! Get back here now!" Zenthlay screamed, a sense of dread filling her body. It was going to come back, she could feel it. The feeling was present in every bone and every blood vessel in her body. She launched after Balm, as the wind quickly began to come back. It whipped through her ears, as she caught up to Balm.   
  
  
  
"Aww…you got me, no fair. You're too fast," Balm frowned at Zenthlay.  
  
  
  
The doe looked around frantically. They were too far away from the warren now, and the storm was gaining its strength now. What to do? What to do? Zenthlay closed her eyes thoughtfully, only to be slung in the side by Balm.   
  
  
  
"Now's not the time to rest sis, I have to catch you now," he beamed, feeling like he might be able to actually catch her this time. She seemed unusually tired.  
  
  
  
"Just shut up for a moment won't you??!!" Zenthlay snapped at her brother, which sent him reeling backwards in shock. What had gotten into her, she was never like that? "We need to find shelter. Somewhere to hide. Anywhere," she said, in short gasps of breath, as she looked around in horror. Some sort of man-thing flew through the air, carried by the wind, and Zenthlay dove for the nearest possible cover, which was a hollow tree stump.   
  
  
  
Balm looked around, totally insolent about what was happening. "So it's just wind, can't harm us…"  
  
  
  
"You fool!" Zenthlay yelled and stuck her arm out to pull Balm into the shelter of the hollowed tree. Zenthlay pulled Balm into the hollow just in time as golf-ball sized hail began pelleting the ground. One bounced off the ground and rolled into the hollow. Balm looked at it, sniffed it, then licked it. Unfortunately, the air was warm and the hail was extremely cold, so Balm's tongue stuck to it.   
  
  
  
"Uhhhh…" he pulled his head back in an attempt to free his tongue, but it was fixed on good. The hail just ended up hitting him in the face as he tried to free his appendage.   
  
  
  
"Seriously Balm, sometimes I wish I could disown you," Zenthlay sighed and with terrific force ripped the ice-ball off her brother's tongue.   
  
  
  
"OWWWW!" Balm squealed in pain and grabbed his tongue with a forepaw. He was about to cuff his sister for that, when the winds suddenly picked up to deathly speeds outside. "Zenthlay," he whimpered and backed up against the other side of the hollow. Zenthlay huddled against her brother as wind whipped inside the hollow. The attack of the hail outside really sent shivers down her spine.   
  
  
  
"What's going on out there sis?" Balm asked Zenthlay, as he tried to stop his paw from trembling, but not very successfully. He had never experienced any kind of weather like this, and even though he didn't want to admit it, he was scared.   
  
  
  
Zenthlay gave her brother a reassuring look and then they rode out the rest of the storm, oblivious to what was going on out silf. As quickly as the wind had picked up, it died down again as the storm ceased its onslaught. 


	2. On the Edge of Tharn

Chapter 2:   
  
On the Edge of Tharn  
  
  
  
The storm had all but ended now, the only trace of its existence being torn tree limbs and man things scattered on the ground. Zenthlay looked around their little safe haven and then nudged Balm. He was snoring loudly, and kicked out, hitting Zenthlay in the arm with his hind legs. "Geesh Balm!" she growled. "Seriously, how could have you fallen asleep during that?"   
  
  
  
Balm shrugged and covered up a sheepish look with a gigantic yawn. "Well I was tired so I fell asleep, simple as that," he explained, and headed out silf without a worry in the world. "Boy it was much, much too cramped in there," the larger buck motioned for his sister to come out.   
  
  
  
Zenthlay warily exited out of the burrow and sighed at her brother. She sometimes wondered how he would make it in the world without her. I mean, she had nothing against him and all, but he seemed kind of, well, dense would be the nice was to put it.   
  
She looked around the forest, surveying the damage. It appeared the tornado had ripped right past them, only missing their hollow by a couple of metres. The trees were devastated, and those that weren't uprooted completely had limbs dangling in a queer sort of fashion. "I'd hate to see whatever had done this," Zenthlay shuddered, "surely it must have been something even greater the power of the black rabbit." She looked to the sky, which held not the faint trace of the storm anymore. "How can Frith protect us against something this devastating?" the brown doe asked her brother, motioning to the destroyed trees.   
  
  
  
"Uhhh…well…." Balm shook his fur causing raindrops to splatter across the ground. "Wait, what did you ask me again?" he blinked and scratched his ears with his hind leg and stared at Zenthlay blankly.   
  
  
  
Zenthlay shook her body, "Balm, pay attention," she sighed, but was too weary to reprimand him again. The storm had drawn on her last nerve, and she was just sick of him now. It wasn't difficult to deny that the only reason she was sticking around at this warren was because she didn't think it would be wise to bring Balm anywhere where he could get eaten by elil. With his intellect, he would probably walk right up to a homba and offer give him an easy meal. Or maybe kill himself for a starving pheffa. Zenthlay snorted at the thought but she could just see him doing something like that.  
  
  
  
Balm perked up and broke Zenthlay's train of thought by speaking, "Hey sis, lookie over there!" he squealed like a little kit.   
  
  
  
The brown doe closed her eyes in utter annoyance at the childishness of Balm's attitude, but curiosity overcame her and she looked over to where Balm had lollopped too. He was sniffing some kind of man object. It was all silver and shiny, what on earth could it be? Zenthlay gingerly ran her paw over the slender piece of plastic that contained many little buttons.   
  
  
  
"BRRIIING!" the man object chimed and Zenthlay jumped back a couple of feet. "For Frith's sake, it's alive!" she said anxiously to Balm.   
  
  
  
Balm looked at the man-object. "Well, what are we going to do with it? It sounds like it needs help; we can't just let it die."   
  
  
  
The brown doe shook her head. "No," she snapped, "We don't assist man-creatures; they try to kill us, why should we save one of their own? I say we leave it alone." Zenthlay turned and began to head up the rise of the hill towards the warren. She was almost in a trace, as she swallowed loudly, her throat completely parched. She felt a little shaky and just wanted to get away from that weird man creature. As Zenthlay made her way up the slight slope in the hill, a sinking feeling entered her heart. Zenthlay halted in her tracks and stared in despair at what lay before her. The doe's features froze in anguish as her lips opened in a silent scream. She flung her body around and dashed the opposite way, as quickly as possible, oblivious to what was taking place in the outside world.   
  
  
  
Balm let go of the man thing he had begun to drag towards Zenthlay, and surveyed the area quickly. There were no elil anywhere, what in Frith's good name was she doing? "Zenthlay!" the muscular, yet sleek buck called out. Seeing as she had no intention of stopping and had now engaged into a zig-zag pattern, thoughts wheezed through Balm's head. He squinted his eyes and caressed his temples, debating the best solution. He watched the tharn Zenthlay reel past him, and then something deep inside cracked. Balm launched himself after his sibling. The fit buck was soon upon Zenthlay and pinned her to the unforgiving ground.  
  
  
  
The terrified doe's eyes fluttered wildly as she focused her gaze on Balm and glared at him.   
  
  
  
Balm retracted from his position, intimidated by Zenthlay, and released his grip on her. Cripes! What was he doing? Zenthlay amply took control of the opportunity and dashed away again. All she was thinking about was getting as far away as she possibly could. It was true Zenthlay had more brains than Balm, but he had the edge physically.   
  
  
  
"Zenthlay! Zenthlay!" Balm screamed as he resumed the chase of his sister. "Stop it! What's wrong with you? I'm sorry??!!" he shouted in desperation.   
  
  
  
Suddenly, Zenthlay halted in her tracks. The brown rabbit's sides heaved with immense effort. Balm had been so intent on 'saving' Zenthlay that he smashed head-first into her with full force when she stopped.   
  
  
  
Zenthlay went flying a couple of feet, and then slid through the dirt on her stomach. She lay there, unwilling to move. It was too much effort.   
  
  
  
Balm bashfully hopped over to Zenthlay and gave her an apologetic smile. "Oops, my bad," he chuckled and then offered a paw to help Zenthlay up.   
  
  
  
Sides heaving painfully and ears flickering angrily, Zenthlay averted her gaze from Balm and ignored his offer. She tucked her paws under her weary body and slowly pushed herself up off the filthy ground. She stared at Balm for a couple of minutes, with cold unblinking eyes. Zenthlay sighed like the weight of the entire world was burdening down on her. She just couldn't believe that Frith was still looking out for his people, now it was just too… "Okay Balm, can you repeat for me the most important thing I've ever told you please?"  
  
  
  
"Bah…Well that would be…" Balm blinked and raised a forepaw to scratch his head in confusion. He didn't ever remember her telling him anything that important, but then again, his mind did tend to wander sometimes when his attention wasn't captured right away. Oh a butterfly! Balm's gaze transferred to the monarch which fluttered delicately through the air and then plummeted to the ground with conviction. What happened to it? Why had that beautiful creature just died so suddenly, so unexpectedly? A look of absolute horror crossed the buck's face as he shook his head. One could never figure out the fickle cruelness of the vast world.   
  
  
  
Balm's sister watched the other rabbit and signed deeply, exhaling a cold, harsh breath that froze her lungs. She looked at Balm, and examined his crinkled brown and confused eyes. The poor buck didn't deserve to know about what had happened, it was all too horrible. Zenthlay squeezed her eyes tight as a single tear found its way down her furry cheek.   
  
  
  
"Is something the matter, sis?" Balm asked as he playfully swatted at the brown doe's sagging ears.   
  
  
  
Zenthlay's body shuddered, and she turned to face the young buck. He was so innocent and unaware, it wrenched her heart. The female swallowed, her throat parched. "Zorn…" she managed to choke out. "Completely, utterly zorn." 


	3. An Unpleasant Favor

An Unpleasant Favor  
  
Balm gasped and backed away from Zenthlay, his features frozen with shock. No, it couldn't be..it was impossible. Unwilling to accept this desperate news, he whipped around, heading in the direction of their warren.  
  
"No Balm! Get back here!" Zenthlay bellowed, but knew she couldn't always protect her brother from the evilness of this world. He would have found out about it soon enough anyways. She just wished that he wouldn't have to suffer through this pain too. She felt that as his sister, she was obliged to shield him from the world. Much to Zenthlay's dislike, things were changing that she could not control.  
  
Balm's sprints slowed to a galloping lop as he neared the ridge of the slope that would allow him to gaze upon the splendor of their long since established warren. It always took his breath away to see the ingenuity of his fellow warren members; some of them had so much talent. A shadow passed across his eyes as they flickered over the scene.  
  
"No.." he whispered hoarsely, frozen in spot. Bodies, strewn across the grass greeted the buck, even some paws and other limbs were lost - separated from their owners. Feeling like he was in a trance, Balm forced his rubbery legs to carry him over to some of the corpses. Some buck, a doe, his marli..  
  
"Noooooo!" Balm yelled out in agony, causing Zenthlay to come running over to him.  
  
"Marli," Zenthlay choked, as she ran a paw over her loving marli's face and closed her eyes. Zenthlay's heart ached as she recited the common lapine phrase, "My heart has joined the thousand, for my marli stopped running today," Zenthlay whispered as she gently put her paw on Balm's shoulder.  
  
The big buck was blubbering like a lummox, as he pulled away from his sister to lie down at his marli's side. He nudged her body softly with his nose. "Marli, I need you, please wake up," he cried. He had never encountered the death of a family member before, and couldn't imagine how much pain it would bring. It felt like someone had savagely ripped his heart out of his chest and ripped it in two, then tossed it on the ground, still vividly beating. His marli, the one who had ensured his survival in the world, was gone. He would never be able to listen to her wonderful stories about Hazel's triumphant journey's or even the courageous Bigwig. Memories flooded through his mind of the doe whose face had crinkled with laughter when he did silly things to please her.  
  
Everything was perfectly quiet until a scratching sound got clearer and clearer. Zenthlay decided to leave Balm with their dead marli, as she did not want him to face any more hardships. He didn't deserve it. She quietly slipped off towards the sound, leaving Balm with his thoughts.  
  
"Frith and Inle please be alive," Zenthlay muttered to herself as she came upon a collapsed run. She launched herself upon the mound of dirt, and began furiously digging. She was fueled by the thought of how horrible it would be to be buried alive. Still breathing, with everything collapsed on top of you. The immense weight, the pitch dark that would cover everything else. Surely, it would be worse than being in Inle. Finally Zenthlay had sifted enough dirt away that a shaking paw shot through the little hole. Zenthlay grabbed the dirty paw and pulled the rabbit out with all of her might. It was a tough squeeze, but she finally did it, and dragged the buck away from the hole to lie in the sunlight.  
  
It groaned and shivered, its eyes glazing over. "Zenthlay." the buck whispered with a smile on his face.  
  
Zenthlay gasped, but remained close to the buck. Damn her for not recognizing him before! But it was kind of hard to recognize him because his coat was not at slick and shiny as it usually was, and he was not bounding around, with ecstatic energy. He had always cheered her up when she was not feeling up to par, and always knew the right thing to say in a tense situation. Zenthlay had never told him before, but she had considered him a possible mate for the future. He was everything that she had been looking for, and now he was well disappearing before her eyes. It was depressing to see a buck who had so much enthusiasm for life, to be dying. Every single thing that Zenthlay had known in her life was being ripped away from her, leaving her with a sick feeling inside. "Quiet," she whispered softly and lovingly to the young buck.  
  
He made a huge effort to smile once more, his mouth twitching with pain.  
  
Zenthlay gently rubbed her pace over the buck's head. "I meant to tell you before now, but I never got around to it. Honey, I love you, and I would be honored if I could be your mate," the doe softly whispered in the buck's ear. Tears soaked her face, as her gaze traveled down to the large gashes that seems to swallow his body, and his mangled limbs that all stuck out at strange angles. Zenthlay knew what had to be done. As much as it pained her to accept this, he had to be put out of his misery. She slowly and gently drew her pace affectionately down his face, and gave him a lick on the cheek. Her paw traveled to his neck, where she quickly dug in her claws.  
  
The buck's eyes bulged as he let out a silent scream. Just as soon as his life had begun, it was over. His body went limp, and his eyes rolled back in his head as he stopped breathing.  
  
Zenthlay collapsed to the ground beside him, whimpering and crying. She never had to claim the life of another rabbit, let alone one that she loved. That was supposed to be the Black Rabbit of Inle's job, not hers. She was merely a young doe, who looked out for the best interests of everyone around her, even if it left her feeling miserable. Zenthlay did not want to go back and face her brother again, but it was necessary. They shouldn't be separated for any length of time, as Balm wasn't the best at making decisions, especially in crisis situations. The doe grudgingly made her way back to Balm, who was still blubbering over the death of their marli. Unbeknownst to him, Zenthlay was not only trying to come to terms with the passing on of their marli, but possibly someone that meant even more to her.  
  
"Let's go Balm, now. We need to get away from this warren. Leave. There are too many.bodies," she choked. "They will attract elil."  
  
Balm wiped away the tears that had formulated on his face, and then wiped his paws on his back. "I suppose," he sighed, feeling like all the strength had been drained from his body.  
  
The two remaining inhabitants of the warren looked back on what used to be their home, and with heavy hearts, began to trudge away from their past.  
  
Suddenly Balm stopped as he looked at Zenthlay, with a look of anxiousness on his face.  
  
"What is it Balm?" the doe asked her brother, her curiosity overcoming her, as she looked on the ground beside them where Balm had his gaze fixated. 


	4. Told You So

Told You So  
  
Balm outstretched his paw, pointing to the plastic man creature that was on the ground in front of them. "I-it moved," he gasped to her, and hopped until he was standing over the piece of plastic. It actually had not moved, Balm just hadn't remembered where it had been in the first place when he had come upon it.   
  
"Balm!" Zenthlay barked, stomping her foot. "Get away from it, and don't be silly. Remember what I told you, stay away from it. It's a man thing and if its alive it deserves to die, and that's all there is to it," she said to him and turned her back. The brown doe began to hop away from Balm, when she stopped and faced him again, her lip quivering. She was getting a strange feeling from this object, and Balm wasn't coming.   
  
"B-but, it IS alive," he exclaimed to Zenthlay, reaching his paw towards the object. He poked at it a couple of times, "Hey, buddy. You okay there?" he asked the inanimate object. He lowered his head to sniff it when…  
  
"BRRINNGG! BRRRRRING!!"   
  
"AHHH!" Balm screamed, and backed up as quickly as he could, running smack into his sister.   
  
"What the Inle?!!" she screeched as she was sent tumbling backwards. Zenthlay squirmed under Balm's weight, and tried to push him off her. "Get off of me, you big lummox," she growled, as she squeezed out from under him, and pushed herself up, panting. She gave Balm a reprimanding look, "See what happens when-"   
  
"ZenthlayZenthlayyouheardthatdidn'tyou?" Balm blurted out in a rush of air, as he grasped his sister's paw excitedly with his own forepaws. He began to drag Zenthlay towards the thing, who looked completely and utterly confused.   
  
Zenthlay had enough. She could not even understand what he was saying; he was so caught up in whatever this object was doing. "Balm!" she cried and pulled her paw free from Balm's rigid grasp. A low growl escaped Zenthlay's throat, and she leapt into the air. The sturdy doe came crashing down on Balm's bulk and he crippled to the ground, caught totally off guard.   
  
"Wh-what? What in Frith's name are you doing Zenthlay?" he tried to strain his head to look at the man object that was only a couple of inches away from his head.   
  
Zenthlay cuffed Balm across the face. She couldn't take his stupid ramblings anymore. That required patience and she just didn't have the virtue. What with the death of her marli and then the buck whom she had loved…it all put a dark cloud over her head that wouldn't blow over for quite a while. All this talk about a man thing needing their help was just tharn, and if she had to pound that into Balm's head, she would do so. That's how great of a sister she was.   
  
A strained look passed Balm's face. "Come on sis, let me up," he whined. "I give up, you win. Or whatever." He looked into her eyes to see if she was serious or not, as it was often hard to tell with her. If Balm would have been more in tune to her emotions he would have been able to see the deep pain that engulfed her very soul, and that she was struggling with something at this moment. But like always, he didn't.   
  
Suddenly, a clear, crisp voice sounded through the object. "Erica? Is that you again?" the male voice spoke.   
  
Zenthlay jumped off of Balm in surprise, who in turn ran over to the voice. He couldn't understand what it was saying, but clearly, the man creature was trying to communicate with them. Zenthlay curiously came up behind Balm, and stared wearily at the object. She wasn't going to admit that Balm, of all rabbits, was right though. It was a thought that seemed implausible.   
  
"See, I told you so," Balm stuck his tongue out at Zenthlay, holding his head high, his face spreading into a large grin. He wasn't about to let Zenthlay get along with being wrong, no, he was going to bask in the pleasure of being right for once. "Didn't I tell you so?" he asked, hopping over to the other rabbit.   
  
Zenthlay pretended that she hadn't heard Balm at first, and began cleaning her paw. Then he asked again, and she had no choice but to answer. The brown doe shrugged, "Well, I suppose you did," she began, trying to think of something that would justify her actions quickly. "But you know, I did say before you that it was alive," she told him with a slight nod.   
  
  
  
Balm began to nod in agreance with Zenthlay, "Yeah, I guess you d- Hey! No, wait a second!" he sputtered in anger. "You did not, you liar! I was the one that said it first. Me! Not you, me!" he told her.   
  
"Uh huh, and I suppose you were the same one that knew it would be safe to be on sentry duty when Frith was unloading the skies with water," Zenthlay retorted, hoping her brother would believe her. She couldn't live with being wrong.  
  
The tip of Balm's ears turned pink as his gaze shifted from Zenthlay to the ground. "Okay, fine. I guess you could have said it first," he submitted to her, thinking it over in his head. Who knows, she actually could have said it first. He did tend to have selective hearing when he wanted to, and would daydream when Zenthlay talked to him. He couldn't help it, she was boring sometimes. "If you say so," he added.   
  
Zenthlay grinned with pleasure. Balm was so predictable. He would always give in to whatever she said, partially because he couldn't or wouldn't think for himself. Maybe he didn't have enough brains to do so. "So, the question is still out there. What do we do with this man creature then?" she asked Balm. It was more of a rhetorical question. Zenthlay definitely wasn't looking for Balm's advice. Her's was always was the best way. This perhaps may be some of the reason why Balm was so dependant on others. He was never forced to think for himself; and even though his sister did want the best for him, she also wanted what would be most pleasant for herself. These two things would possibly be conflicting issues sometimes, and when this happened, Zenthlay would do what she wanted.   
  
"Well…we could-" Balm began, only to be cut off by Zenthlay.   
  
"You know, I have an excellent idea," she spoke up, having no regard at all for Balm's opinion. She assumed that it would just not be that important anyways, that's all. "We're taking this thing back to the man house." She stood on her hind legs and waved her paw in the direction of the farm that was a safe distance away from the warren. Strangely, Zenthlay was feeling much better now that her mind was off all the death. It was easier to put something like that behind her when she had things to do and another rabbit to boss around. She now had her air of authority back as she looked at Balm. "Pick up that thing, and follow me!" she proclaimed and began to march away from the destroyed warren towards the farm.   
  
Balm just blinked for a moment, and looked at the man creature. What had just happened? He was left totally confused, and blankly went over to the object. He clenched his teeth down on something sticking out of the top of the man creature and heaved it off the ground. It wasn't that heavy, so it was pretty easy for him to manage. "Immmaaapphhccan," Balm said happily to Zenthlay, looking over at her.   
  
Zenthlay raised her eyebrow at Balm, and let out a little chuckle. "Come on you silly lug," she laughed and hopped beside him through the long grass. 


	5. Lost and Found

Lost and Found  
  
The two siblings made their way through a small copse, and Zenthlay held out her forepaw in front of Balm, causing him to stop. "Shhh…" she hissed to him, "Stay here." The doe pushed her way through some bushes that bordered the edge of the woods, and stealthily hopped out into the open. Ear pricked, and all her senses alert, Zenthlay stared at the farm, that now loomed in front of her. "Balm, Get out here," She whispered to her brother.   
  
Balm sat on tree stump, looking around idly. His vision settled on a tree trunk, and his eyes followed it up as it split into many different branches and a canopy of green leaves. Balm's head was tilted so far back now, that he lost his balance. "A-a-a," he stuttered as he fought to stay upright. Balm's hind leg moved back a hair, and he tumbled to the ground with a yelp.   
  
Zenthlay immediately turned in the direction Balm's scream had come from. "Balm!" she yelled, and leapt through the bushes, ready to heroically save her dense brother from a homba, or perhaps a farm pfeffa.   
  
Squirming around on his back, Balm kicked out his back feet, and righted himself. He grinned at Zenthlay. "What're you doing?" he asked her bashfully.   
  
"What? You? Grrrrrr…" she growled at Balm, as she realized he wasn't in trouble at all. He had caused Zenthlay all that stress for nothing, and she had received some minor scratches from the sharp twigs that protruded from some of the leafy bushes. "Come on Balm, before you hurt yourself again," she said coldly and pushed her way through the bush again, hitting it wildly with her forepaws. She had to take her anger out on something.   
  
Balm trotted along behind Zenthlay, but he was a little too close. "Creeek, THAWK!" A branch that Zenthlay had hit, came swinging back and nailed Balm's face. "Oh Owwwwww!" he squealed and went dashing in front of Zenthlay into the open. He curled up into a ball on the ground, holding a forepaw to his eye, whimpering the entire time.   
  
Zenthlay tossed her forepaws up in anguish as she scampered after Balm. Frith! He was such a baby sometimes. Actually, he was a baby all the time. This was no time to whimper like an injured kit out in the open. He would attract elil. Besides, she had no compassion for him. It was his fault. He was walking too close behind her. Zenthlay reached Balm and batted him on the head with her forepaw. "Get up, now," she hissed at him.   
  
"It hurts…It hurts," he wailed, very much so exaggerating his injury. He took his paw off his eye and slowly got up, looking unhappily at Zenthlay.   
  
"Good, you've decided to stop acting like a kit," Zenthlay nodded in approval to her brother and gave him a little shove forward. "Now get going," she urged him, "It's not wise to have this man creature for long.   
  
Balm took a couple of steps forward cautiously in the direction of the farm, with Zenthlay following close behind him.   
  
Standing on her hind legs, Zenthlay quickly scanned the surrounding area. "Okay, see those concrete things by the house?" she asked him, giving another small shove. "Go put it there, and leave it," she ordered him.  
  
Balm gulped and lowered his head as he hopped in the direction of the house. When he reached the stairs he laid down the ringing object gently. "We got you back home," he spoke to the man creature with a grin, and feeling very proud of himself, he turned back to grin at Zenthlay, waving a paw at her.   
  
Zenthlay didn't move. She stood frozen, in a state of shock. The door to the house opened, and a big, burly man's frame filled the entire door way. "B…..B…B…" she stammered, but couldn't shout out anything, as her throat was parched from fear. Her ears twitched anxiously.   
  
Balm looked at Zenthlay, a confused look passing over his face. What was the matter? He had done everything perfectly fine. Slowly, the dark brown buck turned himself around to see what had Zenthlay in such a state. His eyes widened in terror, as he stared at the man's feet. As if in a trance, his gaze followed the feet, up the legs to a long stick that the man had tightly clenched in his powerful hands. Balm's mouth opened in a silent scream, as the man's hands reached down and scooped him off the ground. He was too terrified to move, let alone try to escape the man's grasp.   
  
The man grinned, and was about to go back inside the house, when he spotted the other rabbit nearby. He raised the gun with one hand, Balm in the other, and fired at Zenthlay. Just by chance, he then looked at the ground where Balm had been, and did a double take. It was his cell phone. He knelt down and picked it up, scratching his head, then he walked inside the house and slammed the door shut, grasping Balm by the scruff of his neck.   
  
The bullet came too fast for Zenthaly to see it coming. It hit her foreleg with an amazing impact, and she collapsed to the ground, unconscious.   
  
Birds fluttered around in the forest, and squirrels scampered by with nuts in their mouths. The wind rustled the leaves rather harshly, detaching some of them from their braches. The leaves swirled through the air, and one landed on Zenthlay.   
  
She was in a feverish state, and only twitched slightly when the leaf landed on her. Zenthlay's entire body was covered in a cold sweat, as she lay there, breathing shallowly. Suddenly, a figure appeared in front of her, though she had her eyes closed she could still see it. A black shape that rearranged itself until it took the form of a rabbit. A voice came into her mind that seemed to come from all directions. "Zenthlay," it hissed, sounding like the wind rustling through long, tall grass.   
  
Zenthlay felt so very weak, and though the offer was tempting, she wasn't about to give in to death. At least not yet anyways. Slowly the black shadow began to fade, as Zenthlay forced her eyes to open. She groaned, but couldn't move her muscle. Her foreleg felt like a million knives were being stabbed into her at that very moment. Her eyes were only half open, when she felt the vibrations in the ground, of someone walking. The man bent down and picked up the injured Zenthlay by the scruff of her neck. The pain was unbearable, and she lapsed into the world of the unconscious once again. 


	6. Trapped

Trapped  
  
Balm finally regained use of his senses a while after he was placed into a cage and the bars shut behind him. He felt sick to his stomach thinking about Zenthlay. He had seen the man raise that long black stick and then it set off the grandest noise he had ever heard. It made him go deaf for quite a while, but the thing that pained him most of all, was that he had seen Zenthlay collapse after that explosion. He assumed that she was now dead and just sat in the same spot of the cage, staring blankly at the wire. The evil shining wires were the only things hindering him from freedom, and they seemed so cold and dead. Balm spent the next hour or so beating himself up inside. Couldn't he have done something to help Zenthlay? Of course he could of, but he was too much of a stinking coward. "I hate myself," he sulked, and hit his paw against the wires in frustration.   
  
Three rabbits stared at Balm, whispering in hushed voices to each other. Then a young doe stepped forward, and tapped him on the shoulder with her forepaw.   
  
Balm jumped in surprise. "For Frith's sake!" he squealed, thinking that it was the man again. He gasped in surprise when he saw it was rabbits. Well more or less. "Did the man catch you all too?" he asked them, cocking his head. They seemed a little too well fed though, and just didn't look like wild rabbits, especially the one with the lopped ears.  
  
The doe seemed to consider Balm for a moment and then grinned. "Hi, they call me Stardust," the blue-coloured rabbit smiled. Her ears were extremely long, and even touched the ground, giving her face a delicate, gentle look - even more so than the usual rabbit. "Frith?" she asked, squinting her eyes at Balm. She looked around at the two others there, "No, there isn't a Frith here," she told him, thinking that Frith was the name of a rabbit Balm was looking for. "But there are Cloves and also an Arwen. And no, the man didn't catch us," Stardust spoke to Balm, sitting back on her haunches. "We've always lived here."  
  
Balm stared at Stardust like she was an alien. They didn't know about Frith and for that case not El-ahrairah either. It took a while to register in his brain. And they actually lived with man? He had never heard of such a thing so utterly insane. It just wasn't right. Balm's gaze rested on her ears, which were clearly the most distinguishing feature on her. They were so big. "Well umm...what happened to your ears?" he asked, thinking that perhaps the man had done something to them.   
  
Stardust chuckled goodheartedly. "Nothing at all, that's how they are, and so are theirs," she said, pointing to the two other rabbits in the cage. They both nodded their heads when Stardust pointed them out, their ears crinkling up a bit when they did so. "The longer out ears, the better," she informed Balm, cocking her head at him. "That's what I figure from those shows we go to."   
  
"Uhh...okay," Balm replied to Stardust, feeling very much confused. They didn't even sound like rabbits anymore to him. Suddenly the vision of his sister popped into his head. Zenthaly! Was she okay? What had happened? Where was she? A million questions rushed through his mind. He had to ask them about her. "You didn't happen to see another rabbit that looked well kind of like me, did you?" Balm asked Stardust, with a little hope in his voice. She wasn't lost to him yet.   
  
Stardust grabbed her long ear and began to lick it. When she was finished she turned to Balm to answer his question. "Well I'm not sure, you see," she answered him. "He did come in with a rabbit slung over his shoulder, but I'm not sure if it would have been her or not," the doe answered, crinkling her eyes with sympathy for Balm. She had just been trying to spare his feelings, as she was pretty much certain the farmer had Zenthlay. And that wasn't good at all.  
  
Balm's eyes welled up with tears as Stardust told him the farmer had her. "How can I get out of this cage thing then?" he asked, "I need to find her." He wouldn't be able to live with knowing that he possibly would have been able to help her, and hadn't. She could still be alive, for all he knew. He clenched his paws tightly, fighting back tears.   
  
"Hey big fella, take it easy," Stardust tried to comfort him, but she really wasn't much good at it.   
  
One of the lopped eared bucks hopped over to Stardust and Balm. He had been keeping quite a keen eye on the environment, and heard some noise. "Man, he's coming!" he spoke to the two of them, but mostly Balm.   
  
Stardust hopped away from Balm, and huddled in a group with the other two lop-eared rabbits, close to the cage door.   
  
"But-" Balm began with his paw outstretched, and then dropped it when he saw the man enter into the room. Balm felt so sad and alone. Why did Zenthlay have to go and leave him like that? It wasn't fair at all. The young buck watched as the man fished into a bag nearby, and then opened the cage.   
  
The three hutch rabbits' noses sniffed a mile-a-minute as they rushed up to greet the man. One of them even pranced around the cage, as the man poured some pellets into the hard, ceramic dish. Immediately they were all feeding, and Balm just stared at them, forlornly.   
  
The man put his hand in the cage and tried to push Balm towards the dish. "Go on an' eat," he told him, but Balm wouldn't budge. He dug his nails into the pine shavings that covered the wood floor, and held on hard. The whole time a voice was screaming in his head. GET OUT! GET OUT! THE DOOR IS OPEN! But Balm merely remained where he was, refusing to move a muscle.   
  
The man shrugged, and closed the cage. He silently left the room, as Balm remained where he was. The frightened buck felt disgusted with these man rabbits. How could they? Treating him like he was one of there own... "Do you actually LIKE him?" Balm asked the two does and buck, incredulously. He still didn't move from that spot. He was afraid that if he did even though the man was gone, he would still get him somehow.  
  
Cloves lifted his head out of the food dish, his mouth full of flay. "Yeah, why not? He feeds us and takes care of us. We don't have anything to worry about either," he rationalized to the buck. "You know, you're actually lucky to be here rather than in the wild, its better. You'll see in time," he told Balm, not even giving the buck a chance to ask him any other questions.  
  
"Well..." Balm twisted himself around looking for Stardust again. She seemed much more accepting than Cloves. His shoulders sagged when he saw she was ravenously devouring the pellets in the bowl. The well-built brown buck turned back to speak to Cloves, figuring that he would have to do. "What if I want to leave?" Balm asked, as he stared at the spot where Cloves was. Or at least had been. The buck had scampered over to the food dish when Balm was thinking and was indulging himself once more. Balm sighed, as his ears dropped against the side of his head. He wasn't about to go eating that man poison. It just didn't look natural.   
  
The hutch rabbits totally ignored their new companion as he lollopped over to the walls of the hutch. All across was chicken wire, which was supported by slender pine wood. Balm pushed his nose against the wire, and sprung back in surprise when it cut into his nose slightly. "What do I do?" Balm wondered to himself out loud. "Zenthlay would know," he continued to speak his mind, not caring if the others were listening. His gaze never leaving the wire that trapped him in the cage, he thought, "That's it! What would Zenthlay do?!" Balm grinned, trying to place himself in his sister's paws. His face beamed as he thwacked himself across the face with a forepaw. "Ow!" he squealed, and then hit himself again.   
  
Stardust raised an eyebrow as she heard Balm squeal, but the other two kept eating. She shook her head, gazing curiously at him. Just what was he doing? Beating himself up?  
  
Balm's entire face lit up. There, he almost felt like Zenthlay was here again! And all he had to do was keep hitting himself! That's what she would have done… 


	7. The Elil Warren

Chapter 7:  
The Elil Warren  
  
Zenthlay was trapped in a world of darkness. There was nothing but black surrounding her; engulfing her. She looked around, standing on her hind legs to get a view of something, anything that would suppress her burning fears. As she looked in the direction that she thought was mostly likely up, dark, grey storm clouds appeared out of no-where and began to swirl together in a spinning vortex. Thunder streaked out of the spinning clouds angrily, a bolt slamming into the ground with a deafening thud by Zenthlay's feet. Her vision was totally taken away from her and the only thing that she could see was the bright light that had erupted from the thunderbolt. Zenthlay blinked her eyes a couple of times, until the light slowly began to fade away and she could see again. This time the brown doe was in a vast land, with rolling hills as far as the eye could see. But something was wrong.  
  
"What is this place?" Zenthlay questioned, her voice carrying in the wind, and brushing past the vast wheat fields. No answer except for silence came to the very confused rabbit. She sat in wonder and awe, wondering what was going to happen to her, and where Balm had gone off to. It was all so strange. Suddenly Zenthlay caught a very familiar smell; it was rabbits. She let out a great sigh of relief, and lollopped over to what looked like a warren.  
  
"Hullo!" she called into the largest run. Zenthlay's voice echoed through the runs, bouncing into every burrow and hole. Zenthlay furrowed her brow with distaste. Why weren't they answering her? That was rather rude, wasn't it? She puffed up her fur and huffily headed down into the run, ready to give whoever greeted her piece of her mind. When she was a couple of metres down the run, a head popped out of the burrow.  
  
"'Ho are you?" the red and white creature asked. His tail was unlike any other rabbit tail though, as it was bright orange, with a white tip. And beyond that, he had quite sharp pointy white teeth; nasty looking claws.  
  
Zenthlay drew in a sharp breath and gasped as she realized that the creature wasn't a rabbit at all, it was a homba. "A rabbit," Zenthlay answered looking at the homba wearily. Why was it that the homba was the same size as her? That just seemed a little too weird.  
  
The homba looked frightened when Zenthlay told it that she was a rabbit. It backed up into the burrow, and curled itself into a little ball, tucking its tail around its face to cover it up. "Pleeze leave me 'lone," it whimpered, looking very pathetic indeed.  
  
"I wasn't going to hurt you," Zenthlay spoke slowly, as she looked down the run to see if there were any smaller homba in the warren. "So why are you so small?" she asked the homba, as she hopped three steps closer to it. "And the rabbits actually let you live in their warren?" she questioned it, one of her ears falling over sideways.  
  
The homba stared at Zenthlay for a moment, and looked like it was going to answer her questions when suddenly, its eye went wide with fear and it let out an ear-piercing screech. "GIT 'VAY! GIT 'VAY!" the homba screamed wildly, backing up against the burrow wall. It squished itself as far back as it could get.  
  
Zenthlay just couldn't understand what was the matter with this tharn homba kit. Well at least she figured it was a kit, because it was so small. It had to be. Zenthlay was staring at the homba curiously, when she heard some pounding footsteps coming up the run quickly. Since she was in the burrow, she couldn't see what was coming upon her, and her gaze swiveled to the burrow entrance; the only exit. She drew a hasty breath as a shadow of the creature was cast on the wall. She shifted her head a little bit to the right to try and get a better glimpse on the creature, but she still couldn't see it.  
  
"WHAT'S GOIN' ON HERE??!!" A booming voice came into the burrow that seemed to echo off the walls and bounce back at Zenthlay, sending chills up her backbone. Then the creature showed itself, as it walked up to Zenthlay. It strode up to her with an air of confidence like nothing could stand in its way; nothing would be able to defeat it, ever. And it was human.  
  
Zenthlay's body felt paralyzed with fear as the man entered into the burrow. He had dark brown hair nicely accented with blonde highlights, and a muscular build. His face was very cold and stern though, and it was easy to tell he was a no-tolerance kind of guy. As long as things went his way, everything would be all right. But, unlike most men, he was much smaller than them; rabbit size. Or was Zenthlay human size? It was too confusing and difficult for the doe to comprehend. Her whiskers quivered slightly as she answered the man, "N-nothing at all," she failed at concealing the fear in her shaky voice, "I-I was just looking for a nice burrow to rest in for a while. I'm rather t-tired and my foreleg it really hurting," she told them.  
  
The man raised his eyebrows at Zenthlay, as he strode over to her, and looked at her foreleg. It was something a man had put in her; there was no doubt about that. "Hold still," the man told her, as he delicately reached his hand into Zenthlay's wound and fished out the black pebble. "All right, you may stay here, as long as you don't goin' causin' any trouble," he told her, his voice remaining cold and firm. And with that he turned on his heels and headed out of the burrow. "Hungthar, follow me," he called to the homba, who looked at Zenthlay and without further hesitation scrabbled out of the burrow, following obediently after its master.  
  
Zenthlay was utterly lost in a world she didn't know. It didn't make sense to her, had the man put her in some kind of different world, or maybe done something too her that caused her to grow or the man and homba to shrink? She was so very tired, so the brown rabbit curled up on the hard burrow floor, and fell asleep, despite her worries.  
  
* * *  
  
"I jut don't 'ow where 'ee came from, 'ee just appear dere" Hungthar, replied to the man. They were now in a large burrow, and many of the other warren inhabitants had gathered around them, listening in on the conversation between the homba and the man. It was the strangest crowd that would ever be seen together. There were many hombas, dogs, pfeffas, rats, lendril; really just a wide array of elil creatures tossed together in the same warren. And they were all the same size too, except for some of the runts which were smaller than the rest.  
  
"I sssay we ssssstarve her!" a pfeffa yelled out of the crowd, hissing at the thought of a rabbit amoung them. She spat on the ground, and then licked her paws. She brought her paws up to her face and groomed her beautiful white face. She had sparkling blue eyes and a luscious coat of long white hairs, that she always kept tangle-free and looking quite splendid.  
  
The man looked out into the crowd, spurred on by the pfeffa's comment. He lifted his arms to the crowd of vermin and turned to them. "Okay time ta take counsel. Frost says that we are goin' ta starve 'er? What do ya'll think? I want options, not opinions," he bellowed to the crowd once more. It was no wonder he was a leader; he was able to control the others and get out of them what he wanted to know.  
  
"Sir," a black dog a little larger than the rest stepped forward, pushing his way through the crowd. "I say dat ve feed her to dem," he said cruelly, a smirk crossing his face. The man nodded, acknowledging the dog's suggestion, and waited for the others to speak out giving their options.  
  
"COLLAPSE A BURROW ON 'ER!"  
  
"TORTURE 'ER!"  
  
"LET 'ER GO!"  
  
Immediately, every creature in the entire place turned towards the one that had yelled for him to let her go. It was one of the black rats that had called for Zenthlay's freedom. Her fur was a bristled to make her appearance somewhat brute, and she had her teeth bared. A wave of crude comments about the rat erupted, and the other vermin were closing in on her, about to tear her to shreds for her insolence when the man held up his hands.  
  
"ENOUGH!!!" he bellowed. "There will be NO maimin' of our own, we 'ave already been enoughly reduce'd by...well ya'll knows by what, so that's why we're here." The crowd hushed, even though they were starting to get a little antsy from being cramped in the small space together. One of the lendri bumped into a cat, which hissed and gave her a sharp jab back. "Now, I want ta hear ya'll reasons why you've made them suggestions, and then the best decision will be made within time." He paused and the crowd pulsated anxiously. "Icarus, Hungthar, Frost, Rasendel, Kilarn, come up to the front." The man had been standing on a rather large mound of dirt in the middle of the crowd, and his voice to carried to the tense ears of lendri, pfeffa and every other creature.  
  
Since Hungthar was already fairly near the front of the crowd, the orange and white fox made his way to the mound. The population had erupted into a fit of hisses and growls, trying to debate Zenthlay's fate once again, but they hushed when he began to speak. "I 'aid dat we 'ould torture 'er," he said, his eyes glinting with rage. "'Ou all don' know 'ow 'orrible it was. 'Ee torture'd me in dat burrow, 'o I 'ay we do da 'ame to 'er. A rush of cheers began to engulf Hungthar's speech, and the man quieted them down again, by holding his arm up, motioning for silence. "Next," he commanded.  
  
Icarus stepped onto the mound, shoving Hungthar off it with his bulk. He was a black Labrador retriever, and a little bit larger than most of the other animals because he trained a lot. "Well I already said whad I wanted to do, bud yes, I wand to feed her to dem," he spoke out, his voice carrying not sign of backing down from this option. He full well knew that the man understood what he was talking about. The man rubbed his hand across his face thoughtfully. Not a bad idea at all. Some of the vermin in the burrow looked at Icarus like he was crazy, but others thought the idea was splendid. Feed her to her own kind, what an ironic twist of fate it would be for the doe.  
  
The black rat stepped forward next, shrinking a little under the cruel glares that he got from his companions. She cleared her throat, and began talking. "We a should let the bunnnnny go," she squeaked, bristling up her pitch black fur to make herself look bigger, and more beast-like. A moan went through the crowds, but Rasendel held up her furry paws in protest. "Nnno, a wait, hear a me out," she asked the audience, in particular the cats, who were beginning to hiss at her. But of course, the cats and rats never did really get along, they only tolerated each other to the best of their ability. "Obviously she's a only a kitten," Rasendel rationed, "because she's a so small. She cannnnnot a do any damage to us a yet, so let her a go. Besides what if they a came a lookin' for 'er?"  
  
"GIT RID O 'ER!" a very angry lendri yelled through the many vermin. The man motioned to three tough looking creatures that always seemed to reside nearby. One of them grabbed Rasendel by the paw and dragged her off the mound, while another covered her mouth with a gruff paw. Rasendel barely had time to react; she could only let out a muffled squeak, and tried to kick free in horror. She knew what they were going to do to her now, what they did to any creature that caused trouble. Feed her to the hungry monsters.  
  
The man grinned evilly at Rasendel, "Don' have anythin' else to say now do ya?" he said to the black rat, as he motioned for his bodyguards to keep a tight grip on her. She was not to escape, as he had big plans for the filthy vermin. "Now, next, and bare in mind it better be somethin' I like, or else ya'll be joinin' Rasendel here later...and trust me you don' wanna do that."  
  
Frost didn't have a problem with that, so she boldly stepped onto the speaking mound. The white pfeffa stared into the audience, her piercing blue eyes sending shivers down the spine of whoever dared to look straight into them and see the evil that hid beneath. If such a thing could be said, she was a deadly beauty. "Uh humm!" Frost cleared her throat, and then raised herself so she was sitting straight, her fluffy white tail swishing around behind her body. "I ssssaid that we ssssshould ssssstarve her," the cat hissed to everyone that was paying attention. "I think it would be a ssssssplendid way for her demissse, ssssince thatssss often what the larger onessss do to usssss," with elegant grace, Frost descended from the mound, and walked back to her spot in the line of creatures.  
  
Now, the only animal left that had yet to speak his mind was Kilarn. He slowly made his way to the mound, painfully aware that every single inhabitant in the warren was watching him; waiting for him to speak. The lendri tried to clear his throat, but it just got even more parched, and scratchy. "I..." he began and then coughed. He felt like he couldn't breathe. All those eyes were suffocating him. Suddenly, Kilarn could take it no longer and fled from the mound into the crowd, where he sat down and tried to blend in. Which didn't work very well. All the animals that were around him moved when he sat down, leaving him isolated and alone.  
  
Seeing as all the vermin had spoken their minds, the man, clapped his hands together loudly. It was rather strange how none of his followers knew his name, but whenever someone asked, he always replied for them to call him sir. So they did, without much question. As they learned after a short time living with him, that questioning about himself would cause him to grow angry and often find a sacrifice to feed to the ones that lived outside. "Now ya'll, you know how long those things outside have been interferin' with our lives. They won't let us go outside anymore, and if anyone does, they get eaten, or somethin' worse may happen to them, that we have yet to know 'bout. Well, at any rate, I'm not gonna sit idly by and let one of their kits go back to them, not while I'm around anyways. They have already reduce'd our numbers enough, now's time to give them a hit to their numbers, even if it's only one." He paused and combed his smooth hair back with one hand. "Ya'll, this is what I've decided t'do. We're gonna cover her in berries so she don't look like one of them kits anymore, and then send her outside." A cruel smirk passed the man's face, "And then, lets see 'ow they like eating dere own kit, won't know what hit 'em until it's over. Now ya'll wit me?" he called out to the swarms of animals that had all gathered there, in anticipation for this moment.  
  
"YEA! KILL DAT DOE!"  
  
"HURRAH! HURRAH!"  
  
"WE'LL SSSSHOW THEM!!!"  
  
Wild cheers erupted throughout the burrow, and immediately, swarms of vermin headed into the run. They pushed and shoved their way, each one trying to get to Zenthlay first. She was totally unaware of the danger that was soon to befall her. If any creature was to fall, they just got trampled by the hoards of others. Finally, they neared Zenthlay's burrow, and about five different creatures shoved their way in first, amoung them was Frost, the pfeffa. She leapt onto the sleeping doe and hissed in her ear. "Itssss a good day to die." 


	8. There is no Foresight for Sacrifice

Chapter 8:  
There is no Foresight for Sacrifice  
  
Eventually, Balm had to stop hitting himself over the head because it was beginning to give him a pounding headache that caused his temples to pulsate with pain. But when he stopped, the remembrance of Zenthlay began to fade from his mind, and he was left with an emptiness that his only dear sister could fill. See, Zenthlay was now the only family that he had left, and as much as it pained him to admit it, he really was dependant on her. Sure, she didn't show it very well, but he knew that Zenthlay cared for him very much.  
  
The three hutch rabbits had been staring at Balm for quite a while now, wondering if he had some kind of sickness. He didn't seem to be acting like they thought a normal rabbit should act; he was looking quite tharn. Arwen had yet to speak up ever since Balm had entered into the cage and hopped over to him. She put her paw on his shoulder, and spoke softly into his ear.  
  
"Don't give up hope yet, oh forsaken one,  
for the day is not yet done.  
Keep hope and then one day you'll see  
that you, and I and they may be free."  
  
Arwen gave him a small smile, and then she hopped back to the corner of the cage, where she began to nibble on some of the pine wood shavings. There was a mysterious air that seemed to radiate from her very being, and she cast another glance over at Balm.  
  
Stardust and Cloves' mouths both dropped open as Arwen actually spoke to Balm. The fawn coloured doe rushed over to Balm, almost tripping over her delicate ears in the process. "Balm, Balm," she whispered to him, casting a glance over at Arwen. "What did she say to you?" the pretty doe inquired, as she hit one of her ears with her forepaw, causing it to flop backwards onto her back.  
  
Balm was still a little in awe about the way Arwen had talked to him, and it ran it over and over again in his mind, trying to figure out why she had said that to him. Probably just to give him some comfort in this desolate place. He was so engrossed in thinking about this, that he didn't even notice Stardust talking to him.  
  
"Uh hummmm..." the hutch rabbit cleared her throat, not used to being ignored. Stardust was a little spoiled since she was the prized doe of the man's herd. She waved a well groomed paw in front of Balm's face, and when he still didn't realize she was talking to him, she stared into his eyes. They were all glazed and far-off looking. "HEY!" Stardust yelled as she grabbed one of Balm's ears.  
  
"Wha?" Balm asked as he blinked, a little startled at Stardust's display. "Why were you yelling at me? I didn't do anything," he sulked, as he hunched his shoulders over a little bit. What was her problem? He answered her as soon as she had spoken to him, so why were rabbits always yelling at him? Balm came to the conclusion that it wasn't him with the problem, it was definitely everyone else.  
  
Stardust grunted and smiled at Balm. "Glad you're finally here," she said, looking at him intently. "So," the doe began, "What did she say to you? That Arwen doe's awful strange, she usually never talks to us. Keeps to herself most of the time. So spill, what'd she say?" Stardust asked in one breath, seeming a little overbearing because she was so excited.  
  
Balm hesitated for a moment, and then raised his forepaw off the ground, holding it there for a moment, and then placing it back on the ground thoughtfully, thinking about if Arwen would really want him to tell Stardust all about it. Well, he figured, there wasn't much harm it could do, and he didn't want to disappoint Stardust either. In fact, he was rather starting to like the man's rabbit, even though he knew he shouldn't. Zenthlay would never approve of him getting together with a hutch rabbit. They are weak, he could hear her saying. Don't know the ways of the wild, stupid if you ask me. He nodded; yes that was exactly what she would say. Balm realized that he was losing his trail of thought and needed to concentrate a little more. "Errr.....sorry," he replied to Stardust, his ears flushing a little bit with embarrassment. "She said that we were all going to be free someday," he smiled at her.  
  
"Oh..." Stardust looked at the ground. Her heart sunk, she really didn't want to be free, she was happy enough where she was, in this cage. Here it was safe, warm, and they had plenty of food. The same place as her marli, and her marli's marli had lived in their entire lives. She wasn't about to, and didn't want to leave, despite some feelings of unhappiness that she sometimes had. But she guessed that was normal.  
  
Balm furrowed his eyebrows, looking at Stardust with concern. "What's the matter?" he asked her. "I thought it was good news, why aren't you happy?" He was confused as to why the hutch rabbit would actually like living here. He shook his body so his fur stood up a little and then flattened out again.  
  
Stardust shook her head, "It's nothing at all, except I don't want to be free. I want to stay here," she told him, looking around at Cloves and Arwen. "They're my family, and plus, I'm going to have his kits soon," she pointed at Cloves. Stardust's stomach wasn't extremely large like some does were when they were pregnant, but her kits were due any day now.  
  
Balm looked from Stardust to Cloves with an agonized look on his face. He could have just screamed out loud then. Balm felt so...so betrayed. Like his beating heart had been ripped out of his body and then thrown on the floor and trampled on by a pack of dogs. Stardust had been leading him on, like she had some feelings for him, but truly she already had a mate, and wasn't about to go ditching him any day of the week for some wild rabbit. "Why didn't you tell me before?" he asked her, biting his lip to stop from crying. Balm put a little too much pressure on his lip, and his teeth sunk into the flesh. He winced, but licked his lips to clean up the blood before Stardust could see his ignorance.  
  
"Well...I'm sorry. I didn't think I had to," Stardust replied to Balm. "I've had a couple of litters before, and all with different bucks. I mean, I like Cloves all right and everything, but it's not like he's my mate or anything," she told Balm, feeling extremely bad now that he looked so upset over such a little thing like that.  
  
Balm drew back a couple of steps from Stardust, giving her a funny look. "What do you mean, why would you mate with him then if you don't even like him?" he asked, as her brought his forepaw upwards to scratch some of the fur on his head. Balm just couldn't think of a reason why she would do such a preposterous thing when she clearly had so much going for her. He had to stop thinking because it was starting to make his head hurt again.  
  
Stardust shrugged her shoulders as she sat in front of Balm. "Because the man puts us in the same cage together until we do mate. Might as well do it sooner or later before he gets mad at us or something like that." Stardust's ears drooped as she remembered the past litters she had. "And then, when they're old enough..." the pretty doe choked, wondering whatever happened to her babies, "the man comes and takes them away." She lowered her view of sight so she was looking at the ground, sadly. "You know, Balm, sometimes I wonder what happens to them, I mean if they even had a chance to grow up, what they would have been like," the hutch rabbit sniffled a little bit, and looked back up at Balm. "But I suppose you don't really want to hear about my troubles though do you," she said with a feeble laugh as she glanced at Balm with blurry eyes.  
  
As much of a buck that Balm may look like on the outside, he still has a sensitive side inside, though he cannot always think of the right thing to say at a certain moment in time. This was one of those moments. Balm looked around uncomfortably, as he shifted his weight from one forepaw to another, trying to think of something to say to Stardust that would cheer her up, since, after all it had been his excessive prodding that had resulted in her now downcast mood. "Well....um....I....err....understand?" Balm said, ending the sentence in a question as he really wasn't sure if he understood or not.  
  
"You.don't understand!" Stardust wailed, as a salty tear escaped from her eyelid. She wiped her paws across her face quickly, trying to dry off the tear before any of the others noticed. "How could you understand? You're just a buck!" she hissed and turned away from Balm. The fawn doe returned to Arwen and Cloves, looking very depressed and alone.  
  
That was a huge blow to Balm. He just sat there for a moment, his mouth hanging open, as he tried to think of something, anything to say back to Stardust. But it was true. He was just a buck, that's all, nothing special. Somehow, everyone seemed to be always there to remind him of that. Every day seemed to be "Bash Balm Day." There was never a stop to incoming insults, which as Zenthlay often reminded him, was just constructive criticism. Sometimes it was hard to find how anything constructive can be made out of someone calling him a flea-ridden lummox, or a stupid clumsy pfeffa. Balm suddenly snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the man.  
  
"THUMP, THOMP, THUMP," the man made his way into the room, his heavy boots bashing against the floor, making it impossible to notice his presence.  
  
Balm looked up as the man made his way over to the cage with more food. He really didn't care that much anymore; he would rot away in this cage his entire life, as a man creature. There was no way he was going to be caught dead eating those..pellets.  
  
Seeing that the time was right Arwen rushed over to Balm, and sat beside him as the man opened the cage. She leaned over towards him so that she could whisper in his long ear.  
  
"Balm, the time has come, and you know what you must do.  
Escape from this cage so you can start your life anew.  
Wait until the man drops off the pellets and goes on his way  
To bring us some new timothy hay."  
  
Balm blinked as Arwen spoke to him again, trying to figure out what she was telling him. He watched the man drop off the pellets into the ceramic food dish and then he headed over for a little bale of hay that was with the food in the corner of the room. Suddenly, it hit him like a brick wall. "By Frith and Inle!" he exclaimed happily as he saw that the man hadn't closed the cage door. The latch was flung open. Without even thanking Arwen, Balm took a deep breath and then leapt out of the cage; not looking how far down the drop was. It was a rather large drop, and Balm hit the ground, taking in gasps of air, trying to breathe.  
  
Then another rabbit landed almost on top of him. She appeared frightened, as she shook her paws, which were tingling with pain from the landing and grinned at Balm. "Think you could leave without me, didn't you?" she smiled at him, and nudged him with her nose.  
  
"Stardust!!" Balm hissed excitedly. He stared at her for a couple of moments wondering why in Frith's name she would be coming with him, and then looked up. The man was standing right over them, with his hands on his hips.  
  
"Hey, whaddaya tink you're a doin'?" he asked the rabbits and he knelt down to pick them up once again. There was a hint of annoyance in his voice.  
  
"GO!" Arwen yelled from the cage, as she was right near the cage door. The quiet doe inhaled deeply and then launched herself onto the man's back with her claws outstretched.  
  
The man immediately jumped up screaming, "What the ..!!" Arwen was tossed from the man's back and hit one of the hutch's legs with a deafening thud. Her leg was all twisted out of place, and her eyes rolled back in pain.  
  
Balm's eyes widened as he watched this all unfold, and then forcibly tore himself away from it. He felt so bad for Arwen, not so much Cloves though, since he had stayed in the cage eating his precious man food. But Arwen had tried to help them, risking her own life to do so. Now she was hurt and it was his entire fault. Again. Just like it had been his entire fault that Zenthlay had been shot. Balm blinked and then poked Stardust a little roughly, "Come on, we have to go," he told her, the urgency quite overpowering in his voice. The only thing that Balm could think about was that he hadn't even thanked Arwen for her help. Without her he would never have thought of escaping the cage. And now she was hurt.  
  
Stardust nodded, quite dumbfounded at what her friend had just done. The English lop put one paw in front of the other and tried to stumble along behind Balm, obviously quite upset with what had just taken place. Slowly, the show rabbit picked up her pace, as she was getting a little left behind by Balm.  
  
Balm ran for quite a while, fueled by the thought that the man might be behind them, and what he had done to Arwen. He ran blindly by quite exotic objects, until he came upon the door. He skidded to a stop, almost ramming right into it.  
  
"Wha-" Stardust began to ask Balm a question, when he suddenly stopped in front of her. She put on the brakes, which cushioned the impact with Balm a little bit. Both of them tumbled over as they hit the door. "S- sorry," Stardust said bashfully, flicking her head back so her ears weren't in her face anymore.  
  
"Owww," Balm groaned as he rubbed his head and got up. His vision swam slightly and then he shook his head, "No, its okay," he told her. "Totally my fault. Yep." Then the buck's attention focused on the door. It was shut tight, and there was no way that they would ever be able to open it.  
  
"Balm, in here," Stardust whispered to the buck, as she hopped into another room. She had been in this room before when the man had been holding her.  
  
Balm gradually made it into the room, looking at everything in it. At first he was hit by a powerful smell and recoiled. But his curiosity overcame his cautiousness, as he seemed drawn into the room. He was quite amazed with the things that these humans seemed to have. The room was a little cluttered, and Balm hopped over to Stardust, looking around. He wasn't paying much attention to the things on the ground though, so he accidentally tripped on a towel, which sent him sprawling to the ground. Then Balm lay there with a dejected look on his face. "I don't get it. What's so special about this room?" Balm asked, only seeing looming man structures and other weird things.  
  
Stardust beamed and nudged a blanket aside with her head so Balm could see. There was a nice empty shelf that when the blanket was put back down, would be covered up and fully out of sight.  
  
A look of absolute and utter amazement passed over Balm's face, as he shook his ears. He couldn't believe it! The buck slowly moved aside the blanket, thinking that at any moment he would run into a solid wall. But it wasn't so, and he joined Stardust on the shelf, where the darkness seemed to cover them. Then the buck began to explore the limited space, until he reached the far end, where Stardust was hulked over, looking very pale. "Stardust..." Balm whispered to her, his brow wrinkling with concern for her, "What's the matter?" he asked, one of his ears falling over on his head in a comical manner. 


	9. The Hunting Begins

Chapter 9:  
The Hunting Begins  
  
Zenthlay awoke with a start, and the first thing she saw was two huge blue eyes and long, slender whiskers. She squealed and tried to kick her way free, but the pfeffa held her down fast. Zenthlay really hadn't heard what she had said to wake her up with, but she knew the situation was dire. "Wha- What's going on?" Zenthlay asked the pfeffa, her voice shaking with fear.  
  
Frost only winked coldly at Zenthlay and pulled the rabbit up, just out of her slumber. Then she moved a couple of steps back from the doe to reveal the armies of vermin that lay just outside her burrow door. "I dare you, try to esssscape," she hissed at her, prowling up to the rabbit, and batting at one of her ears. She wished that they could torment and starve this doe, or at least something she could do herself, but she had orders and was set on following them. Frost knew she didn't want to turn out like Rasendel, at least that much was clear.  
  
Zenthlay could only stare in horror and amazement at the swarms of elil that were only a couple of paces away from her. She couldn't imagine ever seeing so many of them all at once. And it was kind of strange that they were all living together in one warren. Wasn't that what rabbits were supposed to do, elil were the ones that lived out silf and alone by themselves most of the time. "P-please," she trembled with fear, thinking about what they would possibly do to her. Her eyes flickered over every different kind of animal, a new sense of dread falling heavy in her heart. Escape looked impossible.  
  
Icarus, the black lab, had run down into a separate burrow in which they had all the necessary food stored for the winter. He had grabbed as many strawberries as he could in his mouth, and trying not to squish too many of them with his pearly whites, he trotted with them to where the mob had originated. Icarus pushed his way through the crowd, receiving a few paw shakes and crude comments, but finally entered into the burrow, and sat beside Frost. "Here da berries," he panted, his long pink tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth.  
  
Three mean looking rats emerged from the crowd into the burrow and began to rub the berries on Zenthlay, who was basically frozen solid from a state of shock. She was almost completely tharn. Zenthlay knew that there was no hope in trying to run through the 'millions' of elil that were all too close to her for her liking. Rabbits need some place to hid, and have to be able to run away from danger, or else they definitely don't cope very well. Zenthlay was finding this out in a hard way.  
  
"Hold still," one of the rats, a grey one, antagonized Zenthlay, even though she wasn't moving a muscle. They all rubbed the berries on the doe until she was completely covered in red juice, and looked like a deformed homba. Either that or a really large strawberry. One of the rats licked his lips as he thought of sinking his teeth into the rabbit berry.  
  
"That's enough!" the man called out from the crowds, which parted for him as he made his way through. "No delayin'," he said to the rats, who were still rubbing berry juice on Zenthlay, even though she was completely covered in it. Two different animals that were in the burrow grabbed Zenthlay by the forearms, which caused her to stand on her hind legs, or else she would totally lose balance and fall to the ground. Her ears were twitching anxiously, and her entire body was almost refusing to move. But the vermin made sure that she kept going. The two creatures, along with the crowds pushed her to the burrow exit. Then they shoved her outside and watched from there. None of them, not even the man was brave enough to stand up to the creatures that roamed the hills outside.  
  
Zenthlay breathed a sigh of relief as they let her go; at least that is what she thought they were doing anyways. She couldn't think of any other reason why she would be out silf. She was only starting to calm down when a screaming rat was shoved outside behind her. "NOOOOOO!" it screamed, and tried to run down into the warren again, only to be shoved back out. It tumbled to the ground and then sat there, moping and letting out wails that caused Zenthlay to pale.  
  
"What? What's the matter?" the young doe asked the black rat, as she hopped up to the distressed creature. She was getting extremely irritated with the rat's wails, which caused her stomach to flop every time she heard them. If it was possible, this rat was even more annoying than Balm!  
  
Rasendel took deep, shuddering breaths. "THEY'RE...C-COMING TO A K-K- KILL US!" she screamed at Zenthlay, harsh tears flowing down her face. The black rat grabbed at some of Zenthlay's fur in her anguish and began to pull at it with all her might. "WE'RE A G-GONNA D-DIE!!! She screamed.  
  
"HEY!" Zenthlay yelled at the rat, and cuffed her in the head. "Let go of my fur you flea-ridden beast! And stop that excessive wailing, it's giving me a Frith-forsaken headache!" she growled at the rat.  
  
"B-B-B-" Rasendel began to stammer only to be cut off by Zenthlay.  
  
"OKAY! Listen to me, you stupid rat. Nothing's coming for us. They let us go, so we're free to leave. So keep your wits about you or you will die, because I'll personally kill you myself," Zenthlay hissed angrily at the rat and then turned to leave. As Zenthlay faced the other direction, a shadow covered the ground in front of her, slowly getting larger by the minute. The doe gulped and looked back at the rat, whose entire body was shaking, and was beginning to salivate with fear. Slowly, her vision followed the shadow upwards where she first saw two huge furry paws, brandished with gigantic claws. Zenthlay gasped as she realized what the terrifyingly large creature was. It was a rabbit! Not just any rabbit though, its buck teeth weren't flat like any other wild rabbits, they were pointed, and tinted a reddish colour. This looked queerly like blood. Zenthlay shivered as the gigantic rabbit loomed over them. At first it didn't do much, just sat there watching them. Which was really nerve- wracking as the rabbit was about the size of a hrududu. Zenthlay looked over at Rasendel. Even though she was an annoying rat, she still wouldn't purposely want something to happen to her. It kind of reminded her of her relationship that she had with Balm. Zenthlay figured that Rasendel was just scared, and if she had the same amount of self-discipline as the black rat, then she would have been acting the exact same way. "Now!" she yelled at Rasendel, hoping to catch the rabbit off guard, Zenthlay dashed to the left of the monstrous rabbit.  
  
A cruel smile passed the rabbit's face. "You can't escape," the clear, cold voice seemed to cut through Zenthlay and Rasendel's minds. And then the rabbit put down its forepaws right in front of the two escapees, blocking any hope of their flight.  
  
Zenthlay tottered a little as the voice resounded in her mind again, "Try running," it said, as it dug its massive claws into the dirt, causing gashes in the ground. She recoiled in fear, and held her paws to her temples as the voice echoed through her mind over and over again with an amazing intensity. Zenthlay managed to look over at the rat, who was sitting fairly close by and was rocking back and forth, looking as if it would have a heart-attack at any minute. She took a deep breath, and then ran over to the rat. The monster rabbit didn't try to stop her, it just sat there, merely staring at then with a slight bit of interest. It yawned, showing its massive teeth.  
  
"Shut up, and listen to me. You want to live?" Zenthlay asked Rasendel harshly, knowing that it was the only thing that would get through the tharn rat's mind quickest.  
  
Rasendel nodded feebly, her teeth chattering together as she could not stop staring at the large rabbit. It was too horrible..  
  
"Okay," Zenthlay said sharply, taking on the role of getting them both out safely. The young agouti-coloured rabbit surveyed the scene and then nodded to Rasendel, just deciding on their course of action, since the rat was obviously too out of it to have any impact on what they were going to do. Zenthlay realized her thoughts were a little cruel, but if the rat was killed, at least that would give her more time to get away from the rabbit. "See now rat, we're going to run through the rabbit's legs. Hopefully it won't be able to react quickly enough. One can never be too sure though," she said.  
  
"O-o-okay," Rasendel trembled, as her hind leg began to twitch anxiously. "I-I'll run as a f-fast as a I c-can," she stammered, still staring at the large rabbit that seemed to be silently waiting for them to finish their conversation.  
  
As Zenthlay looked back up at the large rabbit, trying to determine the exact spot she was going to run for, the monster sat down on its haunches, blocking any route of escape through its legs. "Hah!" A triumphant voice split into Zenthlay's mind, who could tell that Rasendel had also heard it as the rat beside her began to wail again.  
  
"G-get out of mmmy a h-h-head!" Rasendel yelled in outrage as she beat her head with her paw, causing her eyes to flood with tears.  
  
"You stupid creatures!" the rabbit that was the same size as a hrududu, or maybe even larger bellowed into their heads. "No wonder you were so easy to wipe off the face of this earth," it stood up and then grinned savagely, showing long rows of pointed teeth.  
  
Zenthlay and Rasendel both shuddered, and crouched on the ground, trying to endure the rabbit's extremely loud communications.  
  
The big rabbit cleared its throat, causing the ground to shake. It began to move towards the two unlikely companions, and although it was quite large, it looked to have amazing agility.  
  
As soon as the rabbit was almost touching them, Zenthlay poked Rasendel quickly and then dashed off to the right of the devilish creature. She sprinted at her top speed, with the black rat on her tail. The large rabbit wasn't so oblivious to their flight though, and it immediately hopped over to block their path. But Zenthlay and Rasendel already had enough leeway, they were able to escape from the rabbit paws that came crashing down beside them, at times very close to squishing them. With a rush of air, another paw came down beside Zenthlay, brushing just past her ear. She withdrew a deep breath and then bolted for a tree hollow. Another paw crashed down beside Rasendel as they both dove into the hollow of the gigantic tree.  
  
Sides heaving with great breaths, Zenthlay and Rasendel dragged themselves to the back of the large tree hollow and then lay there in a heap, trying to recover from both the fright of the rabbit and the horrifying chase that it had ensued. After a couple of minutes, Zenthlay gathered up the courage to look back at the entrance to the hollow.  
  
"AHHHH!!" She screamed, as a large, unblinking eye peered into the hollow, staring right at Zenthlay. The doe's breath caught in her throat, and she backed up against the hollow wall. "What.do..you.want?" she gasped, fearful that the monstrous rabbit would somehow be able to get into the protective hollow, even though the rabbit was obviously quite too big to fit through it.  
  
The big eye blinked once, and the brown colour appeared to swirl around a little. "What do I want?" the voice asked, and the ones listening could tell that it was laced with a sense of great hostility. "You really want to know what I want?" it then laughed, which caused Zenthlay and Rasendel to cringe. The laugh was quite unbearable and harsh, cutting through their minds like a sharp sword. The rabbit continued to force his voice into their minds, with a terrifying power. "It's quite simple. I want to kill you, and all your friends," he said, without the trace of sympathy in his voice. Then the eye blinked once more and the brown colours in his eye stopped swirling together. He got up, and the eye disappeared from sight and he walked away from the hollow and over the hills in the distance.  
  
Zenthlay let out a sigh of relief, and she was finally able to look at Rasendel to see what kind of a state the rat was in. Rasendel was a trembling mess, tears streaked her rough black fur, and she was hunched up against the wall in horror. Zenthlay looked at the rat in disgust. "Get out," she told her in a stern voice, her mouth drawn in a tight line.  
  
"W-what?" the rat looked up at Zenthlay, her whiskers twitching as her nose sniffed the still air in the hollow. "No.no.please a let me a stay with a you, nnnice bunnny" Rasendel pleaded, collapsing to her knees in front of Zenthlay. She began to wail again. "PLEASE!!! If you donnn't they'll get me!!" she squealed, her eyes glazing over. Rasendel began to look around inside the tree frantically. "There will be more coming. I.just k-know it!" the black rat began to scream at Zenthlay, and them slumped down onto the ground, her whole body quaking as she sobbed.  
  
The young brown doe brought her forepaws and grabbed her own ears and then pulled them down so she wouldn't be able to hear the rat's horrible ranting. But Rasendel didn't stop, and after quite a while, Zenthlay let go of her ears. She bustled over to the black rat's side, and placed her paw on her shoulder. A shudder went through Zenthlay as remembered what Rasendel was. A rat. Rabbits usually didn't assosicate with rats unless they got in fights with them, and this was just against everything that Zenthlay had ever stood for. Zenthlay cringed when Rasendel let out a particularly high-pitched scream that gave Zenthlay goose bumps.  
  
"All right, all right, enough all ready," Zenthlay said sharply to Rasendel.  
  
Rasendel looked up at Zenthlay hopefully, "Do-does that a mean that a you let me a go with you?" she pleaded, as she shook herself.  
  
"You've left me no choice," Zenthlay snapped at Rasendel, who recoiled under Zenthlay's attack. She would just have to take the rat under her wing for now, no matter how much she was opposed to it. "Now if you don't do whatever I tell you to, then you're gone," Zenthlay told Rasendel, making it very clear what her expectations were. Zenthlay gave Rasendel a nasty stare for a moment, and then nodded to her, seeing she understood. "Now, tell me right now all you know about that large rabbit, and what exactly is going on?"  
  
Rasendel shuddered as she took a deep breath and stretched out her hind leg, and then arched her back. "Okay, I don't know much compared to others, but I will tell you all that I know about them-"  
  
"Them??!! Zenthlay interrupted, staring at Rasendel. "Well just how many are there?" She asked, her impatience really showing.  
  
Rasendel withheld a growl as Zenthlay interrupted her rudely like that. "Please don't do that again," she said, looking quite scared. Maybe afraid that Zenthlay was going to abandon her for that comment or even give her some physical abuse. Zenthlay just narrowed her eyes at Rasendel. "Right," Rasendel continued, as she sat down in front of Zenthlay. "That was quite obviously a rabbit," the rat stopped to look at Zenthlay. "But obviously, you know that since you're a rabbit too. So then, why are you so small, and what were you doing in our warren?" she asked.  
  
Zenthlay raised her eyebrows. "I don't know, you tell me," she snapped at Rasendel. "And you're not supposed to be asking questions, so go on and get ahead with what you were telling me," the doe demanded.  
  
"Okay..sorry," Rasendel stammered, and continued her story. "Well, ever since I've been alive, we've lived in that warren, all those different animals, together as one. You see, that's the last of our numbers. The rabbits have overpopulated the world so much, that we were forced to retreat to that last safe refuge. "My.well.marli as you would call her." Rasendel stopped for a moment as she caught Zenthlay's look of surprise. "And yes I know Lapine, all of us do, since those rabbits talk to us a lot." Rasendel began to groom her fur, and when she caught an evil look from Zenthlay, only then did she continue. "Well anyways, my marli told me that once long ago, us elil used to rule the world, and rabbits were only on the bottom, always being afraid and living in fear. Well, I'm not sure what happened, but one day there was this huge uprising, and well, they defeated us and began to rule out silf. Marli said that our offspring got smaller since they would be able to hide easier, while the rabbit's got larger, since they ruled the above-ground and ate so much. Parli once told me that the rabbits used to eat grass.but that was a long time ago, now..." Rasendel stopped and sniffed.  
  
"Get on with it!" Zenthlay growled at Rasendel, not caring about her obvious show of emotion. That was the rat's problem, not hers.  
  
"My marli and parli were fed to them, okay??!!" Rasendel quickly blurted out, and then looked at the ground, as a tear ran down her face. "That's what they do, feed the rabbits sacrifices and they said if we did that then they would leave the rest of us safe." Rasendel shook her head sadly. "But that's not really what happens. Eventually we had to stop going up silf because anyone that went out there would get eaten. Horrible really." The rat shuddered. Then something horrible dawned on her, "See that's what's going to happen to us..we're rabbit food," she said, and slouched down on the ground.  
  
Seeing as Rasendel didn't have much more to say, or at least that she wasn't feeling up to revealing any more information, Zenthlay found this sufficient for now. "Okay, get your rest, tomorrow, we're going to go see if we can find those rabbits," she said smiling slyly. 


	10. Tugging at Heartstrings

Chapter 10:  
Tugging at Heartstrings  
  
Stardust took a couple of quick breaths of air, and wrinkled up her nose as she inhaled that awful smelling air. "I just d-don't feel right," she told him, and began pulling fur out of her chest, and making a nest on the wood. Her eyes went wide with fright as she realized what she was doing. Her maternal instincts were kicking in, and she was going to have her litter right now...there.  
  
Balm gasped as he realized what was happening. Perfect. Just perfect, now he was ruining someone else's life. "I...I'll just leave," he told her and turned to leave.  
  
At that moment, Stardust began to freak out. She started screaming, and tears rushed down her cheeks. "Balm!" she wailed, and hopped over to him with great difficulty. "Balm, take me back to the cage.NOW!" she demanded to him, not thinking all that rational anymore. She was scared out of her mind, for both her and her litter. What if they didn't make it here? The man had always checked on them and made sure that they were healthy. And there wasn't even any flay here, they would starve! Stardust whimpered as she grabbed Balm's paw. "PLEASE!!" she yelped desperately.  
  
Balm stopped, and looked over his shoulder at Stardust, when she had grabbed his paw with an unusual amount of strength. But when she did so, a tingling sensation when down his foreleg, and the tips of his ears flushed with embarrassment. He quickly pulled away from her, his heart thumping wildly against his ribcage. "I.I." he stammered, as his lips seemed to lock together. Balm just couldn't speak. He looked at Stardust, and then unable to control his feelings, he headed out from the shelf, pushing the blanket gingerly aside with his nose. He hopped around the room a little, trying to clear his mind. Balm felt like a monster for having left Stardust there, when she had begged for him to stay with her. The buck hopped around, until he came to a medium-sized bucket that seemed to have some kind of pure white water dripping from the top. And there was some kind of wooden object with animal hairs on it that was covered in the white water that lay across the bucket. Balm sniffed at the man things, and then withdrew, gagging, as the intoxicating smell inflamed his nostrils. "Ewww! Sick!" he commented to himself, and then his eyes fell onto the towel that he had tripped over earlier. Now, it actually seemed that it could be useful, as Balm's thoughts immediately fell on Stardust. He grinned as he took the towel in his mouth and then dragged it into the shelf, where Stardust was taking refuge.  
  
"BALM!!!" she squealed as the buck returned, his mouth clasping onto the towel. He dragged it all the way into their hideout and then dropped the soft cloth in front of her. "H-here, to help with your nest," he stammered, looking like he wanted to hide in a hole to get away from her.  
  
Despite her pain, Stardust managed to give Balm a weak smile, until she was hit by a fresh wave of pain that caused her to crumple down to the ground because of the hurt.  
  
* * *  
  
It was a long ordeal, but finally, there were six helpless little pink kits on the cloth that was covered in Stardust's fur. The English Lop looked up weakly at Balm, still very tired from the birthing.  
  
As Balm looked at the kits from a safe distance, he felt a sudden yearning, wishing, just hoping that someday these kits were his. Balm sighed, as he realized that they were Cloves, which he had known all along. Some of them looked to be the same colouring as Cloves too. He frowned, and hopped a couple of steps closer to Stardust, being careful, as he knew how crazy some marlis could become when it came to protecting their kits. They went insane over even the littlest things. "You.you okay?" Balm breathed, as one of the kits kicked a little foreleg into the air, and then nestled closer to its marli and the other kits.  
  
Stardust growled softly. "Of course I'm not okay, what does this look like?" The young doe then shook her head and her ears flopped against the sides of her head. "I..I'm sorry, I don't know what's getting into me," she apologized, and licked one of the squirming pink kits.  
  
Balm's eyes went wide, as he watched Stardust. One second she looked angry, and then the next second she was fine and herself. He shuddered, it was just freaky. The buck made a mental note to fall asleep with one eye open just incase she decided to do something unforeseen to him in his deep slumber. Balm decided that the best thing to do would be to change the subject, "So, what do you think happened to the others?" he asked Stardust. "And what about Zenthlay?"  
  
"Ummm.well I don't know," Stardust replied rather haughtily, as she puffed up her fur, and twitched her nose. "What about Zenthlay? How am I supposed to know where she is?" the lop-eared rabbit said to Balm, with a sense of hostility in her voice. She then lay down again beside the six kits, and closed her eyes, falling to sleep immediately as her head touched her forepaws. Poor Stardust had been exhausted.  
  
Balm pulled his lip back in surprise at Stardust's tone of voice, and sighed. He thought it over in his head. Balm settled down on the cold shelf, and he strained his ears as he heard the door creak open. Luckily, the human only peeked his head into the room, and then closed the door tight. "Phew!" Balm said out loud, and wiped the sweat off his forehead with his paw. Finally Balm sat down a fair distance away from Stardust, and uneasily drifted in and out of dreamland.  
  
"Balm, Balm.honey wake up, its time to get up," a doe whose forehead was crinkled with lines of care, shook the little buck. Balm was only little less than a kit at this time, and was a little chubbier than the others, who always taunted him because he was overweight.  
  
Balm shifted in his sleep, and flung his paw up in an attempt to rid himself from his persistent marli. "I'm tired!" he whined, rubbing his eyes as his marli drug him up. Balm let out a huge yawn, showing his little teeth.  
  
Salvendar, Balm's marli, smiled at Balm, and looked over to Zenthlay, who was sitting nearby. "Your sister has been up for a while now, waiting for you. You don't want to keep her waiting, do you?" she asked, her sweet voice filling Balm's ears.  
  
He nuzzled his marli. "Sorry marli, I would never do anything to disappoint you," he grinned at her, and purred as he rubbed against her chest. He loved his marli so much; she was the only other rabbit that truly understood him. Zenthlay did to some extent, but the rest of the kits at the warren were just cruel to him. Particularly one of his marli's best friend's kits. Pinedrop, who always thought that she was better than anyone else.  
  
Salvendar shifted her weight around on her front paws, and then looked at the six other kits that were eagerly hopping all over her, waiting to get out silf. "Come on kits," she smiled at all of them, as they eagerly bounded off to explore the outside world. All but Balm. He rather remained behind, hopping as slowly as he could up silf, hoping that if he went slow enough that they would all be finished playing before he got out silf. His marli stopped behind him. "Balm, I know what's the matter," she said solemnly to him, as she gently nudged him out silf with her nose. "You're scared. Don't worry about it though, I can't see why anyone would have a reason to dislike you, you're a sweet, gentle rabbit." She smiled and then whispered in his ear, "I love you, and no matter what anyone else says, you are the specialist rabbit in the world to me, I wouldn't trade you for all the lettuce in King Darzan's garden." And with a final nudge, Balm was out silf, and Salvendar disappeared into the runs.  
  
Balm looked around, his eyes wide, and his sister Zenthlay hopped over to him. "Come on Balm," she replied to him, and led him over to the large group of hrair kits (about twenty of them). Balm uneasily mingled amoungst the crowd, until he was suddenly pounced upon and slammed onto the ground. He groaned and tried to rub his head in pain as he glanced onto the stupid, grinning face of Pinedrop. Balm's heart sunk, as he got ready to receive a thrashing from her.  
  
But, instead of physically beating Balm, she decided to give him a more hurtful emotional thrashing this time. "You big fat lazy oaf!" Pinedrop spat at him, as she stared into his eyes. "Didn't I tell you not to come out silf again because I didn't want to see your ugly face?"  
  
"Urrmmm.W-well yes," Balm stammered, as his eyes welled over with tears. "J- just leave me alone..please?" he pleaded with Pinedrop, as he lay perfectly still under her weight.  
  
"J-just leave m-me a-alone!" Pinedrop mocked Balm, as a sly grin spread across her face. "You know what; you have to be the most pathetic, stupid buck that I've ever met in my life. If I was you, I would go crawl into a hole where all the no-body's go to die. You're not worthy to even be out silf in Frith's presence. And your marli? What can I say about her? She's just about as weak as you.but not as quite. Ugly doe too," Pinedrop nodded her head in agreeance with herself.  
  
By this time all hrair of the kits had gathered in a circle around Balm and Pinedrop, listening intently to the insults that were being dished out one- sidedly. More than half of them cheered Pinedrop on, antagonizing Balm, and sending out a couple of crude insults about him. Only a select few of Balm's close friends, and maybe one of his other sisters along with Zenthlay supported Balm, yelling for him to stand up for himself.  
  
Although Balm was heavier than Pinedrop, he still didn't move since she had him pinned. He wasn't one to fight back, and never had been.  
  
Getting angry at Balm because he wasn't sticking up for himself, Pinedrop growled at him. "What? Do you want me to mess up your ugly face even more so than it already is?" she jeered at him, and raised a forepaw above his head, her claws gleaming dangerously in the sunlight. She swiped them down on him, cutting his face, and then was about to come down on him again, when she was tackled by Zenthlay.  
  
"Get your filthy paws off my brother, you tharn hrarka doe, or you'll have me to deal with!" she threatened, looking very powerful as she flexed her paws on Pinedrop.  
  
Pinedrop met Zenthlay's gaze for a couple of seconds, and then broke away, pushing Zenthlay off her, and growled as she hopped into the crowd of kist, muttering something about stupid does.  
  
Balm sat where he was, not moving, despite the insults being thrown at him about having his sister save him from the 'big evil Pinedrop.' His face flushed with embarrassment, as he realized he was totally dependant on her, and his marli. And everyone thought he was a weak fool.  
  
Balm woke up, covered in a cold sweat as the past events of kitten hood came back to haunt him. He was once again left with the feeling that no-one cared about him anymore. Balm couldn't help thinking that perhaps he was the big fat lazy oaf that everyone accused him of being. Surely, if that many other thought that about him, then it wouldn't be a lie..would it? The words of his marli always came back to resound in his head when he got into difficult situations. "Don't worry about it though, I can't see why anyone would have a reason to dislike you, you're a sweet, gentle rabbit. I love you, and no matter what anyone else says, you are the specialist rabbit in the world to me, I wouldn't trade you for all the lettuce in King Darzan's garden." Balm sighed, as the sight of his dead marli came back to him. His heart lurched, remembering how even in her death, his marli had looked elegant, and still had a special quality about her that made Balm want to go with her, wherever she was. Sometimes, he still felt like Salvendar was watching over him and making sure that he didn't get into trouble. Actually, the traits of his marli had been coming out more and more in his sister, Zenthlay. That was until she was shot by the farmer.Balm stretched himself and then lay down again; tossing and turning in feverish sleep.  
  
Balm stormed down the burrow, and entered into the space where his marli was residing. "Marli, I need to talk to you," he told her, as he sat down in front of her.  
  
By this time Salvendar's whiskers were grayish, and she was beginning to look a rather old. The years of raising kits had really took their toll on her. "Yes Balm, what is it?" she asked, trying to sound pleasant, though something was bothering her.  
  
"I don't want you watching out for me anymore marli.No following me around..No gathering me flay.I can do all these things myself." Balm raised his head to show how big he was and squared his shoulders. "I mean, I'm a fully grown buck, and fully capable of taking care of myself." He said, as delicately as he could. Truth be told, the buck was a little irked at his marli for always treating him like he was still a kit. But what he didn't understand and the moment was that she did all these things because she cared about him, and wouldn't ever want to see him get hurt.  
  
Salvendar stopped smiling at Balm and hurt filled her eyes. Her slender ears drooped to the sides of her head, as her eyes filled with tears. "B-b- "  
  
"No!" Balm insisted, as his marli tried to reason with him. Balm wasn't going to allow her to manipulate him this time; he had quite enough of her over protectiveness. As Balm looked into Salvendar's soft, brown eyes, he saw a look of sadness and abandonment that would stay with him for the rest of his life. Then without another word, the buck exited out of his marli's burrow and headed silf for sentry duty, leaving his forlorn marli by herself.  
  
Suddenly, Balm heard a crack of lighting and the tree nearby burst into flames.  
  
"Balm! What are you doing? Trying to get yourself killed?" a young doe yelled from the burrows, as the tree began to crack and branches fell to the ground. The buck had been taking on sentry duty, and was intent on doing his job well, except for the fact that he didn't have any common sense.  
  
Balm looked at the doe and then to the burning tree and scuttled down into the run beside the brown doe. "So Zenthlay, what's new?" he asked her, with a stupid grin on his face.  
"Oh you know, same old, same old," the doe replied and motioned to the rain outside. "So what was with that, you trying to tempt the Black rabbit?"  
  
"No, no, no, lets not be hasty now," Balm replied, "I was just doing my job."  
  
"Do you see any other sentries out there, huh?" Zenthlay asked, obviously upset that her friend had no common sense himself. "You know, I won't always be here to look out for you, brother, and when I'm gone, what will you do?"  
  
Balm awoke with a shudder, and then sat straight up in the shelf. He shook his head, but the memories of his haunting dreams would not leave him. Now it hit him clearer than ever that he had to help Zenthlay, for her sake and for his marli's sake. Balm's face flushed, as he realized what Zenthlay had always told him had actually come true. And he was devastated. What would he do now that Zenthlay was gone? Balm's eyes shifted as they fell on the sleeping Stardust. Her kits had gathered around her for warmth, well at least four of them had anyways. The other two were unusually still. Balm watched the precious little babies for a moment, but did not see the gentle rising of their full stomachs, nor movement of any other kind. "Stardust.." Balm said hoarsely, but his voice did not carry to the ears of the sleeping marli. So, he repeated it louder this time. "Stardust!" he spoke clearer.  
  
"Wha-What's the matter with you?" Stardust asked drowsily as she was rudely awoken from a most pleasant episode of stuffing her face with carrots and other flay-rah. She rubbed her eyes sleepily with her forepaws as she saw four Balms. Stardust blinked a couple of times, and then her vision focused on the buck before her. "Well.what is it? Are you going to keep me in suspense all day?" Stardust asked. She was especially grumpy as it was too early in the morning.  
  
Balm only shook his head, pointing a trembling finger at Stardust's kits. The ones that weren't moving. His heart sunk, as he saw Stardust's face wretch up in misery. She threw herself on the ground with a tortured cry. Balm winced, and watched, feeling very out of place.  
  
Stardust nudged the two kits with her nose. They didn't move at all, and were stiff and cold. Definitely not a good sign. They were long gone, but Stardust continued to nose them, wishing, hoping with all her heart that they would wake up and beg to be fed once again. "No." she whispered, as she finally admitted defeat and slumped down beside them.  
  
"Stardust."Balm said uncomfortably, as he just thought of something very gruesome. "I'm really, very sorry to have to bring this up now.but what are we going to do with them? They can't stay here because won't they start." Balm paused for a moment, thinking that what he was going to say was totally inappropriate. But someone had to tell her. "Well., you see, they'll ummm." he broke off, unable to tell her.  
  
Stardust nodded. "Balm, it's okay," she said, sorrow causing her to choke out the words. "I know. They'll start to smell," she said softly, looking at the ground. It was horrible. She thought that by escaping with Balm, maybe her kits would actually get to grow up with her, but now..it seemed impossible. "The-the man, he usually takes away the ones that die," she told Balm, as tears slipped out from under her eyelids and pooled underneath him. She began to cry, with huge shuddering sobs. "I.I'm just a hor-horrible.mar-marliiiiiiii," she bellowed, her shoulders heaving.  
  
"Star-Stardust," Balm began and then broke off. He began to retreat into his own little world. The buck sat down where he was, his eyes looking very glazed and far-away. The smell from whatever the men had left in this room was invading his nostril, and it seemed to burn his throat as he swallowed. Balm just wanted to go back home with Zenthlay and marli, tell them all how sorry he was. That he was just a big, fat fool of an oaf, and they were always right. Balm would always need them to lead him, and tell him what to do. Balm began to rock back and forth on his heels, chattering to himself. "I don't deserve to liiiiiiiive!!" he cried out, as his nose twitched anxiously. Unlike most times, Balm did not care to portray himself as a strong, male anymore, and began to whimper like a little kit as tears streamed down his cheek. "Zenthlay...Salvendar..I let you both down..I always did, and I always will! Come take me Black Rabbit of Inle!" Balm cried, now not really aware of what he was saying. He couldn't think straight anymore. "Please I don't want to live." Balm sunk down to the floor, crying softly. "I don't deserve to live, I just ruin everyone's lives," he sobbed, his tears lessening, as he closed his eyes tight, wanting to die.  
  
Stardust was broke from her own pains for a moment when Balm screamed out and watched him until he sunk down to the ground, his eyes closed. Stardust gulped, as she realized what it was she had to do. There was no way that the dead kits could be rid of besides.consuming them. She felt sick at the thought, but it was something that had to be done. Nearly tharn, Stardust did what she knew was necessary for their survival, and almost didn't realize that she had finished the job. She kept chewing until she reached one of the alive kits, and accidentally chewed most of both its ears off. Stardust only realized the horrible mistake that she had made when the kit let out a squeak in protest.  
  
"What's going on?" Stardust asked out loud, as she looked around, breaking out of her trance-like state. She looked around, and then saw what she had done to the precious little kit. "Oh!!" Stardust yelped and then backed away from the helpless pink creature as quickly as possible. "What have I done?" Stardust squealed, unable to wretch her eyes from the kit she had mutilated. "I'm a MONSTER!!" Stardust yelled, cuffing herself in the face with her forepaws.  
  
Balm opened one eye from his depression, and glanced up at Stardust when she had screamed. What was he doing? He should be helping her, not acting like a selfish fool. Who cares about his problems, when Stardust is obviously having more serious ones than him. Balm immediately leapt into action, fueled by things that Zenthlay had told him when she had been with him. Hoping that he wouldn't regret this later, he rammed himself at Stardust quite forcefully, knocking the surprised marli to the ground. Balm pinned her, and although she squirmed a little at first she quickly calmed down, not seeing much reason to struggle.  
  
"Let.me..go." Stardust breathed at Balm, giving him an evil eye.  
  
"Nun, uh, I'm not letting you up until you stop this nonsense," Balm told Stardust firmly, amazed at himself for actually being the rational one this time. For once anyways.  
  
Stardust squeezed her eyes tight, pretending that she wasn't going to listen to him. The ruff of fur on her neck was covered in blood, and she shivered slightly.  
  
"Stardust..listen to me," Balm asked, but Stardust just slightly turned her head away from him. Balm sighed, as he loosened his grip on Stardust. She didn't move, so he let go of her completely. She still remained lying on the ground. "Okay Stardust..please just don't laugh at me or anything, okay?" Balm pleaded with the young doe, who in return said nothing. She wasn't happy. Balm took a deep breath. "Stardust, I know this may sound stupid, but from the moment I laid my eyes on you, I just thought that you've got to be my doe.You're the most beautiful rabbit I've ever seen in my life, and even though I know Zenthlay wouldn't approve of me getting together with a hutch rabbit, I don't care. You know, ever since I met you, it seems that all I cared about was pleasing you, and putting up a good impression of myself.for you" Balm stopped to clear his throat, and eyed Stardust, unsure if she was even listening to him. The doe's ears had flopped over her face so he couldn't even see her eyes. For all he knew, she could be sound asleep, or laughing silently at him. "Stardust," Balm continued, "You're the doe for me. You're the only rabbit that I want to be mine forever, I hope this isn't too much of a strain on your nerves," the buck sighed, as he gently stroked one of her ears with his paw. "I love you Stardust," Balm said, his heart thumping against his chest awaiting her answer. 


End file.
